The biggest threat to Pat Surtain's title as Defensive Player of the Year is his own teammate. Denver Broncos pass rusher Nik Bonitto is off to a roaring start in 2025, absolutely dominating week after week off the edge.
Bonitto has 4.5 sacks through the first four games of the season, and is showing shades of vintage Von Miller out there with his ability to get off the ball quickly, bend around the edge, and get to the quarterback.
Even more than just racking up sacks through the first four weeks of the season, Bonitto is putting teach tape out there against every tackle he's faced so far. He's averaging six pressures per game so far and has to be an early top-3 favorite for Defensive Player of the Year.
Nik Bonitto may be emerging as Broncos best defensive player in 2025
Nik Bonitto has at least six pressures in all four games this season, per @NextGenStats.
— Zac Stevens (@ZacStevensDNVR) October 1, 2025
Just insane. pic.twitter.com/Hf3xU3SoMq
As we know, pressures are not an "official" stat because pressure is subjective, so while Next Gen Stats has Bonitto with 24 pressures through the first four games, Pro Football Reference has him at 12 through four games.
Again, the idea of pressure is subjective, but no matter what eyes are watching Bonitto, we're all seeing the same thing: He's unstoppable right now.
Pro Football Reference also has Bonitto leading the NFL right now with 11 total QB hits, which isn't quite as subjective a stat. You either hit a quarterback or you didn't. If he can keep this up, averaging nearly 3 QB hits per game at this point, there's no question that he will be in the mix for NFL Defensive Player of the Year.
So what does Bonitto have to do to take his game to the next level and make sure he's taking home hardware at the end of the year? Well, it's easier said than done, but if he can start knocking the ball out of the quarterback's hands when he gets there, because he's getting there so frequently, he's going to start to run away with this award.
Joey Bosa shockingly leads the NFL this season with four forced fumbles already this season, and nobody else has more than two right now. Again, it's easier said than done, but that is the one critique you could offer at this point for a player who is cruising like Bonitto is right now.
That was part of what differentiated Von Miller as well. Miller knew he would have no problem getting to the quarterback, so he figured out ways to take things a step further and get the ball back to his offense by force. If Bonitto can start creating takeaways with his pass rush, it's going to be a snowball effect for him and nobody will be able to deny that he's taken that next step into the NFL's elite pass rusher category.